Microsoft Readies a 'Lean' Windows Client
Cheap Windows for cheap clients
Thursday, May 12, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
So what is the enterprise customer on a tight budget to do about getting their spy-ware ridden, security vulnerable desktops up to par? Microsoft's answer: "Eiger".
Eiger is basically Windows XP with as much stripped out as possible to get it to run on very low end hardware. So that state government office with 300 copies of Windows 98SE running on Pentium 600s with 128M of RAM will finally be able to be brought into the 21st century.
Mary Jo Foley has details on this latest project. Read the whole thing.
Randahl
Reply #2 Friday, May 13, 2005 3:48 AM
Reply #2 Friday, May 13, 2005 3:48 AM
maybe this would help my pII 366mhz w/192mb mem laptop run a bit faster 
chadlachlanross
Reply #3 Friday, May 13, 2005 5:35 AM
Reply #3 Friday, May 13, 2005 5:35 AM
Sounds cool. Everyone seems to be complaining about features being "removed" from OS 10.4 and all that, but I'd love to see an XP that is just the OS, instead of all the extra tools I never use anyway.
_Martin_
Reply #4 Friday, May 13, 2005 7:19 AM
Reply #4 Friday, May 13, 2005 7:19 AM
Chadamus - I think the thing that remains to be seen is whether it would be a useable OS for day to day work for the majority of people.
"It can't run games, office-productivity software or line-of-business applications"
"It can't run games, office-productivity software or line-of-business applications"
XX
Reply #5 Friday, May 13, 2005 10:58 AM
Reply #5 Friday, May 13, 2005 10:58 AM
Hmm it would be useful for reusing those older machines.
Especially laptops, which is always useful.
Especially laptops, which is always useful.
-xino
Reply #6 Friday, May 13, 2005 11:59 AM
Reply #6 Friday, May 13, 2005 11:59 AM
odd, since I have XP Pro running here on a PII 450 with 384 RAM. works fine for me as is.
paxx
Reply #7 Friday, May 13, 2005 6:44 PM
Reply #7 Friday, May 13, 2005 6:44 PM
This version will be able to run on 64 Megs of RAM. Forget it with regular XP.
But this is not intended for home users, but for some legacy office computers running in terminal mode or mainframe-terminal, or even for those running some Internet-based applications.
This OS wouldn't be much use for most people. It seems to me it's mainly just to increase the OS security of these offices still running DOS applications and such.
But this is not intended for home users, but for some legacy office computers running in terminal mode or mainframe-terminal, or even for those running some Internet-based applications.
This OS wouldn't be much use for most people. It seems to me it's mainly just to increase the OS security of these offices still running DOS applications and such.
thomassen
Reply #8 Saturday, May 14, 2005 7:56 PM
Reply #8 Saturday, May 14, 2005 7:56 PM
Yes, they are making it in the hope that it will decrease the amount of security vulnerable computers. Computers with out of date security isn't just a threat and annoyance to the owers of the computer, but everyone else connected to that computer, such as through the internet.
MAXXX22654
Reply #9 Sunday, May 15, 2005 8:20 AM
Reply #9 Sunday, May 15, 2005 8:20 AM
There are other OS’s out here in the "real world" that would run great on those PC’s, are much more secure then WINDOWS, and it would not cost them anything. They are called... LINUX Distro's. most of them have the free openoffice software on them. and if they don’t like openoffice, Corel is releasing a Bata of their software for LINUX. just a thought. 
GreenReaper
Reply #10 Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:27 AM
Reply #10 Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:27 AM
Sounds like they're basically taking a certain configuration of Windows XP Embedded and rolling it out as a consumer (or business) product. Which isn't a bad idea, really. One size seldom fits all.
azdruid
Reply #11 Sunday, May 15, 2005 11:30 AM
Reply #11 Sunday, May 15, 2005 11:30 AM
This is pretty funny...I can make Windows XP Pro fly on a PII 400 by just running nLite on an installation first. You dont need to give Microsoft anymore money to get a lighter version....you can do it for free.
PurrBall
Reply #12 Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:28 PM
That's faster than the computer I'm typing this on (P3/500)!
And I'm running XP Home with WB, DX, Rainlendar, Winamp and Sysmetrix right now!
And this does have 384 meg of RAM.
Reply #12 Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:28 PM
| Pentium 600s |
That's faster than the computer I'm typing this on (P3/500)!
And I'm running XP Home with WB, DX, Rainlendar, Winamp and Sysmetrix right now!
And this does have 384 meg of RAM.
paxx
Reply #13 Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:38 PM
Reply #13 Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:38 PM
Guys, this OS is targeted towards Pentium class processors (that's around 100 Mhz and less), not Pentium II or Pentium III, with 64 Megs of RAM.
Regular XP can run fine even on 300 Mhz processors, but certainly not on a Pentium 75.
And no, Linux is not an option for the target market of this OS, as the target is office computers running legacy terminal applications (DOS). These will not run on Linux. The whole point is to avoid having to replace the DOS application.
Regular XP can run fine even on 300 Mhz processors, but certainly not on a Pentium 75.
And no, Linux is not an option for the target market of this OS, as the target is office computers running legacy terminal applications (DOS). These will not run on Linux. The whole point is to avoid having to replace the DOS application.
BX
Reply #14 Monday, May 16, 2005 2:34 PM
Reply #14 Monday, May 16, 2005 2:34 PM
Old but nice news ...
I do have doubts about it ..
| Guys, this OS is targeted towards Pentium class processors (that's around 100 Mhz and less), not Pentium II or Pentium III, with 64 Megs of RAM. Regular XP can run fine even on 300 Mhz processors, but certainly not on a Pentium 75. |
I do have doubts about it ..
Island Dog
Reply #15 Monday, May 16, 2005 8:23 PM
I have to disagree. I have installed XP on a computer with 64. It of course wasn't the fastest, but it worked just fine.
Reply #15 Monday, May 16, 2005 8:23 PM
| This version will be able to run on 64 Megs of RAM. Forget it with regular XP. |
I have to disagree. I have installed XP on a computer with 64. It of course wasn't the fastest, but it worked just fine.
Fourth Letter
Reply #16 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:59 PM
Reply #16 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:59 PM
define "worked just fine" = it did stuff i wanted ......eventually 
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Reply #1 Friday, May 13, 2005 12:47 AM